Fly On Board With These Quadrotors Racing Through a Forest

The Phantom Menace has approximately one good scene: the bit where people race through canyons at high speed while people shoot at them. Although reality might not quite be up to jet engines and high-powered rifles quite yet, a group of quadrotor hobbyists have managed to replicate the first-person thrill of racing a dense obstacle course at high speed.

Airgonay, a French model aircraft club, organised a first-person-view quadrotor racing competition recently, and it looks only about one step below a fireworks drone for how much fun you can have with a small flying vehicle and a forest. As you'd expect, people crash, a lot: flying quadrotors at speeds of up to 50mph through dense forestry, in close proximity to other drones, is a slight challenge: according to the organisers, just making it around the 150m circuit three times was an achievement, regardless of whether or not you finished on the podium.

The video's in French, but the language of replicating Star Wars scenes with tiny flying aircraft is fairly universal. [YouTube]